www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Investment of USD84 million has been contemplated by telecom operator AT&T to increase 3G capacity in Puerto Rico by deploying 105 new cell sites.
According to AT&T Puerto Rico’s CEO Jose Juan Davila, the investment is part of the consolidation of Centennial Communications, which is due to be completed by the end of the second quarter.
A combined 1.1 million subscribers on the networks of Centennial and AT&T in Puerto Rico has been estimated by Davila.
Tom Shoes, a foot ware company which is known for donating a foot ware to disadvantaged children every time you buy one, has joined hands with Microsoft Advertising for a multichannel campaign featuring mobile.
On April 8, the company is all set to organize an event called One Day Without Shoes to create awareness about the debilitating foot disease which infects poor people who often go without shoes.
While Microsoft Advertising will be donating its online, in-game and mobile advertising assets and expertise, JWT is providing the creative work.
According to the founder and chief shoe-giver of Toms Shoes, Santa Monica, CA, it is great that a company size of Microsoft is not only taking note of the Toms One for One movement but is also helping them to achieve their goal to have thousands of people participate in One Day Without Shoes Shoes on April 8.
In his opinion, being able to connect with the supporters through their mobile devices takes their movement one step further, engaging them in their brand and allowing them to get involved through a different channel.
The campaign includes homepage takeovers, including Fox Sports and MSNBC, placements across Microsoft’s mobile and in-game properties, as well as strong viral and social media elements.
Myxer, one of the largest mobile entertainment sites on the web, has teamed up with urban entertainment artist Quincy Jones III (QD3) for a new mobile entertainment campaign that shows the power of free mobile content downloads to drive the sales of DVDs.
In order to support the DVD launch of ‘The Carter with Lil Wayne’, Myxer offered free mobile content from its site, on the behalf of QD3. As per the data, consumers downloaded more than 1 million pieces of mobile content from the documentary including wallpapers, ringtones and videos in a four-week long campaign. This led to a 20% increase in DVD sales which helped the DVD to drive to the No.5 position on iTunes.
According to a source in QD3, while the company was expecting several hundred thousand downloads of the free mobile content in the one month period, they were blown away by the fact that there were 1.1 million downloads in such a short time period. The company is thrilled to have worked with Myxer to create such a huge impact on their sales.
According to Myxer CEO Myk Willis, the campaign shows that the branding power of mobile personalization content is superior to many other forms of digital advertising. In his opinion, the quality ad frequency of user engagement with a mobile download, such as a ringtone or wallpaper that users seek out and carry with them for weeks, is clearly differentiated from that offered by traditional digital ads.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The planned release of a contract version of the HTC-manufactured Nexus One smartphone on Vodafone has been delayed till the middle of next month, due to unknown reasons.
While the Android-based handset can be easily availed from Google for around £360, what potentially is adding to both delays and cost in the form of import tax and VAT, is the availability of unlocked contract-free version from the USA.
Earlier it was planned that handset will be made available on various Vodafone contracts starting at £35 per month. No explanations regarding the delay have been made by the company despite the fact that by releasing the Nexus One in April, it will clash with HTC Legend, another HTC-manufactured Android-based smartphone.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A new feature for the customers and for the website has been launched by telecom operator Sprint through which new phones can be virtually tested by the users before taking the plunge and signing a two-year commitment.
The new customer service is expected to work for the telco which is otherwise not very famous for its extra ordinary services for its customers. San Mateo, California-based Device Anywhere has provided the service and it is also known for providing online simulators to developers looking for a way to test applications.
Sprint’s web site carries the sales tool where people can test drive real features on the phone, unlike the fake prototypes often found in kiosks or even stores. Apart from helping in the sale of the phones, the software offers two other features- it can also be used to help a person learn how to use a device through step-by-step tutorials at http://www.sprint.com/learn and demonstrate 34 different mobile devices available.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Europeans now seem to be willing to pay for goods from their phones and with the successful trial in Sweden; the continent seems to be ripe enough for SMS-based mobile payments to take off. 20% increase in sales of the seven vending machines in two Stockholm underground stations was reported where the service was trialed by the payment and messaging equipment provider, Ericsson IPX, besides boosting carrier’s ARPU through increased SMS traffic.
The commercial services in Sweden is now planned to be launched and is set to begin fresh trials in Oslo, Norway, by end March. According to Donya Ekstrand, head of marketing and communications at Ericsson IPX, the Swedish trial was successful because consumers are familiar with how SMS works, and using that technology provides a clear revenue stream for carriers.
Partner firm Mobivending, on the other hand, has shown its unwillingness to discuss how many people had used the service in Stockholm. It has also been explained by CEO Katarina Lowenberg that it was up to the carriers to discuss usage, but said that individuals spent around 50% more when paying for goods via SMS because it was more convenient than fishing around their pockets for change.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Earning over four percentage points of market share, Google’s Android OS has emerged as the only mobile platform experiencing significant growth in the US during the three months ending in January.
Even after an increase in the market share to 7.1% from 2.8%, Android continued to occupy the fourth place. Microsoft’s share of the smartphone market shrank four percentage points to 15.7%. The loss has been attributed to the gain in the Google’s share.
Sale of the iPhones has been stalled with just 0.3 percentage point’s increase in the Apple’s share to 24.8%. However, even after the loss, Apple maintained the second spot behind RIM, whose market share grew from 41.3% to 43%.
Fall in the share of Palm continued with a loss of 2.1 percentage points but it also continued to hold its fifth place with a 5.7% share.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Verizon customers waiting for its 4G handset are not required to hold out the purchase of its 4G phone as the company is not likely to have its very first 4G handset until mid-2011.
According to Anthony Melone, Verizon’s CTO, the carrier could have a 4G phone three to six months after it launches the service and it has committed itself to an aggressive LTE roll-out, which will launch in some markets by the end of the year.
Verizon is likely to be defeated by Clearwire which is building another 4G network based on WiMax technology and as claimed that it could support a phone as early as mid-2010.
Both of these networks don’t have the traditional voice-calling capabilities and will first be used for connecting laptops and other data devices.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A trio of new services has been launched by AT&T bringing smart-phone like features to low-cost phones. Address books from a personal e-mail account to their phone can now be easily synced by the users and they can send photos to the cloud on devices that cost between $20 and $40.
The aim behind the launch of the new services is to train consumers to spend more on monthly data plans and to become more dependent on using their phone for more than calling. The three exclusive services include- AT&T Address Book, Next Generation Messaging and AT&T Mobile Share.
AT&T has also announced four new devices in the category of devices “quick messaging,” which is their most popular and fastest category of devices. Samsung Strive, Samsung Sunburst and Pantech Link and Pantach Pursuit are the three new devices. Samsung Strive which is arriving on March 21 will be the first phone with AT&T’s new services.
Heart’s LMK launched various categories of iPhone applications covering a variety of topics including Lady Ganga, cupcakes and baseball players. These category specific applications known as LMK (“Let Me Know”) are priced starting at $0.99.
These applications can be easily downloaded from Apple’s App Store as well as through LMK.com and can be used on the iPhone and iPod Touch. LMK expects to expand its offering on a monthly basis.
The company has set up huge goals for itself which include expanding the aggregate service to other mobile platforms such as Google’s Android phones, or hand-held devices including the various e-Readers or Apple’s iPad. All these service are expected to reach the customers in April.
According to President of LMK, New York, Michael Gutowski, the company saw an interesting market opportunity to break through the clutter of Internet search results and build mobile products that curate, package and deliver the most authoritative content on subjects that matter to consumers.
This resulted into the introduction of LMK, a dynamic delivery platform now powering topic-specific iPhones applications, aggregating and presenting the most current and relevant facts, stories , photos related to each topic.
This platform is currently supporting over 70 iPhones apps and the company is all set to leverage it to support thousand of digital products.
